Slub catcher



S. L. ABBOTT SLUB CATCHER June 2, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 29, 1950 jrza'evzfor' YW W5,

June 2, 1953 s. L. ABBOTT 2,640,252

SLUB CATCHER Filed July 29, 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 fiyevziar Jamaal 4;]?5

' mamzmv June 2, 1953 s. L. ABBOTT 2,640,252

SLUB CATCHER Filed July 29, 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 latented June 2, 1953 UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE 3 Claims.

This invention relates to slub catchers and more especially to slub catchers of the type described in my United States patent application Serial No. 60,847, filed November 19, 1948.

My saidapplication Serial No. 60,847 describes a slub catcher which has no parts that are required to move during detection of a slub, but

which has an improved ability to distinguish finely between a normal thread or yarn on the one hand and objectionable enlargements such as slubs on the other hand, without injuring the thread when such objectionable enlargements are not encountered. The slub catcher of my said application Serial No. 60,847 is also especially adapted to allow normal knots to pass along with the normal thread without causing the thread to break as in the case of a slub.

A United States patent application of Winthrop L. Perry for a slub catcher, Serial No. 176,625, filed on the same date as this present application describes a slub catcher making use of the principle of the slub catcher of my said applies-don Serial No, 60,847 and further providing an improved construction of blades, improvements in the mounting of the blades, and provision for insurin that the predetermined normal relation of the opposed blades will be accurately restored when the blades are closed after being opened.

The present invention will be explained as applied in conjunction with the preferred form of construction shown in the said Perry application.

Experience has shown that it is desirable to avoid any provision for varying the distance or space between the blades, but on the contrary to maintain a fixed predetermined relation between the blades appropriate to the particular count of thread being treated. This avoids any possibility of accidental maladjustment such as would unduly narrow the passages that accommodate the normal thread or would unduly widen the passages that are intended to deflect an objectionable slub. On the other hand, without altering the spacing of the blades, it is desirable to be able to alter the sensitivity of the slub catcher, in other words to vary the action of the slub catcher as regards the minimum size of slub that the slub catcher will remove. It is often better in practice to allow certainsmall slubs to pass than it would be to break such small slubs and replace them by knots. The invention aimsto allow the sensitivity of the slub catcher to be altered as regards the size of slubs caused to be removed or allowed to pass without removal, and to do this in an expeditious manner without change of the blade spacing which has been selected as being best for the given thread, which blade spacing is in effect built into the slub catcher.

Other objects of the invention and advantageous features will be apparent from this specificationand its accompanying drawings in which the invention is further explained by the description of a preferred form thereof.

In the accompanying drawings,

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the head portion of one of the traveling winding units of a traveling spindle winding machine, omitting some of its parts, and showing the present invention applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is a right side elevation of the apron or cover plate of the winding unit of Fig. 1, and the slub catcher carried thereby;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view on an enlarged I scale taken on the line 33 of Fig. 1 showing the exit side of the slub catcher;

Fig. 4 is an end view of the blades of the slub catcher, taken on the line 3-4 of Fig. 1 on an enlarged scale;

Fig, 5 is a fragmentary view showing the reverse side of the members shown in Fig. 3, that is, showing the entrance side of the slub catcher as viewed from a line such as the line 5-5 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic view of the threadengaging portions of the slub catcher, taken from the same point of view as Fig. 1 but on a larger scale and showing two adjustments of an adjustable guide for varying the sensitivity of the slub catcher.

Although of general applicability in the textile industry, the present invention will be illustrated by way of example as applied to a traveling spin-' dle winding machine comprising a large number of traveling winding units, adapted to wind yarn or thread during their travel in a closed path around the machine.

The head portion It and upright portion I l of such a windin unit and upper rail 20 of the track of such a machine are shown in Fig. l of the accompanying drawings, it being understood that the winding unit travels along the track 20 from right to left.

As shown in Fig, 1, yarn or thread indicated at '1, coming from a suitable supply bobbin on the lower portion of the traveling winding unit, runs upwardly and in contact with the outer faces of yarn guide blocks 21 and 22 which extend outwardly from an apron plate 24 at the head of the winding unit, and thence to a reciprocating thread guide 25 and onto the winding yarn or thread package P which is rotated by frictional contact with a drive roll 25.

A pair of guide rods 21, 28 are secured to both of the guide blocks 2| and 22, and lie closely adjacent to each other at guide blocks 2| and 22 so as to center the yarn in its vertical path from the lower guide block 2| to the upper guide block 22. Between the guide blocks 2| and 22 the thread may be acted on by any suitable tension device, for instance a pair of yieldingly opposed disks or plates 30, 3 I.

The slub catcher is preferably located to act on the centered vertical run of thread between the guide blocks 2| and 22, and comprises two normally opposed inner and outer members an and 4| inclined to the normal path of the thread and defining a plurality of cooperating slots or passages encountered by the thread. The thread normally passes as in Fig. 1 vertically upwardly between the right-hand portions of the two members 40 and 4|. The member 4| preferably terminates somewhat short of the end of the member 40 and also has its outer corner rounded, which insures that a thread moving upwardly under tension will draw against the outwardly facing surface of the inner member 40 and thence into the passage between the two members 40 and 4|.

Each member 40 and 4| is preferably formed of two overlying elements suitably rigidly secured together to act as a single member, member 48 being formed of an upper element 4|) and a lower element 40, and member 4| being formed of an upper element 4 l and a lower element 4|.

As disclosed more particularly in said Perry application, the members 40 and 4| abut in a common plane which is preferably formed by accurately ground surfaces of the elements 4|! and .40 on the one hand and elements 4 a and 4 on the other hand. Member 4| is secured as more particularly described in said Perry application upon a rotatable spindle 6|, rotatable in a bushing 60 secured to the apron plate 24 by a nut 60*. so that member 4| can be rotated to remove it from alignment with member 40 and thereby open the slub catcher and expose its thread-engaging surfaces while still maintaining an abut ting relation of opposed flat surfaces of the two members 40 and 4|. A combined compression and torsion spring 65 is connected at one end to the spindle 6|, abuts against a shoulder 60 on the bushing 60, and has an end portion secured to a pin 61 which is fixed to the apron plate 24. The axially expanding action of the spring 65 forces the spindle 6| inwardly, holding the outer member 4| in firm abutment against the inner member 40. The torsional action of the spring 65 yieldingly urges the rotatable outer member 4| toward its normal closed position. A stop element 10 upon the rotatable member 4| engages the upper surface of member 40 to stop the rotatable member 4| in its normal closed position. The slub catcher is adapted to be automatically opened and closed as the winding units pass any one or more places in their path of travel by an arm 43 striking a stationary pin or cam element, as more particularly described in said Perry application.

The thread-engaging or right-hand end portion, as viewed in Fig. 1, of each element 40*, 40, 4|, 4| is cut away diagonally along one edge as best shown in Fig. 4, so that whenassembled in operative position the diagonally cut-away portions cooperate to form an interior passage or bore 44 extending longitudinally of the members 40 and 4|. The passage or bore 44 demarks the opposing faces of the members 4|! and 4| into spaced blade portions formed by elements 4|) and 4| at the upper or exit side and spaced blade portions formed by elements 4|) and 4| at the lower or entrance side.

At the upper or exit side of the slub catcher the upper blade portions define between them a first slot indicated at 50, of appropriate width to permit the passage therethrough of normal thread, and to exclude the passage or at least obstruct the ready passage of any substantial enlargement. In a typical instance in which the thread may be considered to have a diameter of .008, the slot 50 may have a width of .009".

At the left of slot 50 (Fig. 6), the upper blade portions together define an enlarged exit 5| laterally removed from the normal path of the thread and through which enlargements deflected thereto by the slot 50 can leave the slub catcher upwardly. This exit 5| preferably has a width many times that of the slot 50 or of the diameter of the normal thread.

The central passage 44 thus provides room through which a short unobjectionable enlargement such as a nib or knot can run along the entering side of slot 50 during deflection t the left, and reach the exit 5|.

The blade portions at the lower or entrance side of the slub catcher define at their outer portions an enlarged entrance portion or mouth 52 at the normal vertical path of the normal thread. This entrance portion or mouth 52 should be of a width adapted to permit unobjectionable enlargements such as nibs or knots to pass freely therethrough to the upper blades, and may for example have a width of .062".

The entrance portion or mouth 52 tapers to the left of the normal vertical path of the thread, into a second slot indicated at 53 which is preferably of the same width as the first slot 50, that is, of a width to permit passage therethrough of the normal thread when the normal thread is deflected into this second slot 53 by reason of an enlargement encountering the first slot 50 at the exit side of the slub catcher.

A reduced width or tapered extension 54 of th secondslot 53 is adapted to serve as a snagging slit and extends laterally beyond the path of the thread as deflected to the exit 5| by the first slot 50 alone, this reduced width extension being in position to receive thread deflected thereinto by an enlargement such as a slub encountering the second slot 53.

The left end portion of this reduced width ex.- tension tapers to a much narrower width than either the first or second slots, and in fact as shown, tapers to form a slit having an imperceptible width at its end, and will induce breakage of any thread reaching this left end portion.

Thus, as in the construction disclosed in my application Serial No. 60,847, a short unobjectionable enlargement such as a nib or a knot will be deflected by the first slot 50 and will travel up through the passage 44 and leave through the exit 5|. The normal thread immediately behind this enlargement will be deflected into the second slot 53, but will not be reacted on by this second slot and will not enter far enough into the tapered reduced width extension 54 to be snagged and broken by the very narrow left end'portion thereof. When the nib or knot reachesthe enlarged exit 5|, the thread resumes its normal vertical course, without having broken.

On the other hand, a somewhat longer enlargement such as a slub of sufiicient length,

when: defiected'by the. first slot to; into. the sec nd. slo 53, if'notimmediateb? caughtand bro"- ken;v there. will receive a. further deflecting action from this second slbt 53.. tending to shift the slub into the tapered reduced width extension 54.

It will be understood that when a slub, en.- counters aslot of not much reater width than is. required to. pass the. normalyarn, such as the second. slot -3, the slub. will tend to flatten out and. squeeze through. the slot, but that the inclined slub-deflecting blades, even though the slub is. squeezing between them, can be utilized to clefiectlthe slub. into-the snagging slit through which the slub is. unable to squeeze.

The adjustment of sensitivity of the slub catcher, without cha ge in spacing of the blades,

is accomplished by a simple guide element 3.5 located in advance of. the. blade. portions at the entrance side of the device and. having a shoulder which determirresv the point at which the thread assumes its deflected course of. approach toward. the blade portions, and which affects the angularity of the deflected thread to the, blade portions.

As shown in lTigure l the guide 35' is slotted at 35* and adiustably fastened through such. slot. and through a vertical slot 35 in the apron plate by a bolt and wing nut indicated at 3.6.

Fig. 6 shows diagrammatically two positions. of the guide 35 which may be. obtained by moving the guide, toward and away from the blade portions, approximately along the course of approach T of the normal thread as undeflected by occurrence. of an enlargement. Movement of the guide 3:; closer to the blades as in the upper position of Fig. 6 decreases the sensitivity of the slub catcher, and movement of the guide farther away from the blades as in the lower position, increases the sensitivity of the slub catcher. y The presence of the guide it does not need to affect the angle of approach of the thread to the blades in the undeflected normal course of the thread as shown by the vertical line T in Fig. 6, and in fact the guide need not necessarily touch the thread when the thread is in this normal course, but after deflection of the thread by the blades has begun, the guide then determines the point of approach of the deflected thread toward the slub catcher. Thus the presence of the guide, as well as the position to which the guide is moved, need have no effect in determining whether the upper blades will or will not cause the thread to begin to be deflected toward the left, toward or into the second slot portion 53 between the lower blades.

In explanation of the action of the guide as regards slubs in the marginal region of size which are to be snagged or not snagged as determined by the location of the guide, it may be useful to regard the snagging or non-snagging of such slub as depending upon a race between the latoral deflecting action of the blades upon the slub and the tendency of the rear part of this slub to work its way through between the lower blades before it becomes snagged.

Thus referring to Fig. 6, it will be seen that presence of the guide near to the blades, as in the upper position, reduces the angularity of the thread to the inclined blades as the thread is deflected toward the exit 51. This means that in the case of an upper position of the guide as compared to a lower position, a longer length of deflected thread may lie between the entrance face and the exit face of the slub catcher and that accordingly the tail end of. a slub of given length may more nearly or more quickly pass from. between the lower blades, into the central bore 44, as the thread is deflected to the exit 51, and hence more quickly reduce or more nearly 01' more quickly stop the thread-deflecting action of the lower blades. This would, indicate that a given slub of which the tail end might have practically pulled through between the low or blades if the thread had at the time the slub reached the exit. 5| followed a course from the upper position of the guide, would still be effectively engaged. by the slub-deflecting lower blades the thread had followed, a course from the lower position of the. guide.

Moreover as seen in Fig. 8, a theoretical straight line directly connecting the shoulder 35 of the guide and the, enlarged exit 5! will pass farther to the left within the tapered reduced width extension 54 in a lower position of the guide than in, an upper position of the guide.

If the tail end of the slub were still in the act of squeezingthrough the entrance side of the slub catcher as the slub approached the exit 5!, it would appear that the tail end of the slub would then be encountering a wider width of the tapering reduced width extension M in the case of an upper position of the guide than in the case of a lower position of the guide.

In addition, it will be observed that the length of the thread which is deflected is longer and the angle of deflection is less for a lower position of the guide than for an upper position of the guide, so that it is possible that after deflection of the threadhas once begun, and the thread has left the vertical, further deflection may more easily be accomplished when the guide is in a lower position than when the guide is in an upper position.

Without necessarily depending upon any of these theories of operation, simply positioning the guide 35 nearer to the blades decreases the sensitivity and positioning the guide farther away from the blades increases the sensitivity. In other words, the tendency of certain enlarge men-ts to be deflected sufficiently to cause them to be snagged by the tapered reduced width extension 54 is increased in the lower position of the guide 35 as compared to the upper position of the guide in Fig. 6, in such manner that somewhat shorter slubs and somewhat finer slubs will be removed from the thread with the guide in a lower position than will be removed from the thread with the guide in an upper position.

With quite uniform thread, it is possible to allow it to be carried farther toward or farther into the reduced width extension 54 by deflecting action upon a knot or imperfection not to be removed than would be so if the thread were uneven, and when it is desired to remove slubs of smallest sizes from such quite uniform thread, lower positions of the thread guide 35 are favored. On the other hand, when it is desirable to insure that thread not intended to be broken should never pass through a, slot which is substantially narrower than either the first slot as or the second slot 53, and when somewhat larger slubs can be tolerated, then upper positions of the thread guide are preferred. In connection with this latter case it will be observed that in the upper position of the guide 35 in Fig. 6 the straight line drawn between the shoulder 35* and the exit 5| crosses only a small corner of the tapered extension 54, at which place this tapered extension 54 is not appreciably narrower than the second slot portion 53.

It will be understood of course that the lines from shoulder 35 to exit 5| do not necessarily show exactly the deflected courses of the thread, either in the case of a knot that is to be allowed to pass or a slub that is to be removed, because it is possible that there is some lag of any thread in shifting sidewise toward these geometrical lines, and in the case of a slub it is probable that the impact of the upper and lower blades upon the slub itself will somewhat distort the slub and the following thread from these lines.

I claim:

1. A slub catcher including blade portions defining two thread slots spaced apart in the direction of length of the thread, the first said slot being located toward the exit side and the second said slot being located. toward the entrance side of the slub catcher, the blade portions at said slots being inclined at a slant to the normal path of the thread so that an enlargement encountering the first slot is deflected laterally and the thread thereby deflected lengthwise of the second slot, the second slot then being adapted to exert a further lateral deflecting action on the enlargement in case the enlargement then engages the blade portions at said second slot, said first slot having an enlarged exit attained by the thread after lateral deflection along said first slot, and the second slot leading into a reduced width extending thereof adapted to snag the thread, and a thread guide at the entrance side of the slub catcher movable to different positions to alter the angularity, relative to the blade portions defining the second slot, of a line connecting said thread guide and the enlarged exit of the first slot, so as to vary the sensitivity of the slub catcher.

2. A slub catcher including blade portions defining two thread slots spaced apart in the direction of length of the thread, the first said slot being located toward the exit side and the second said slot being located toward the entrance side of the slub catcher, the blade portions at said slots being inclined at a slant to the normal path of the thread so that an enlargement encountering the first slot is deflected laterally and the thread thereby deflected lengthwise of the second slot, the second slot then being adapted to exert a further lateral deflecting action on the enlargement in case the enlargement then engages the blade portions at said second slot, said first slot having an enlarged exit attained by the thread after lateral deflection along said first slot, and the second slot leading into a tapered reduced width extension thereof adapted to snag the thread, and a thread guide at the entrance side of the slub catcher movable toward and away from the blade portions thereby to increase the tendency of an enlargement to be deflected toward the smallest end of said tapered reduced width extension as the guide is farther from said blade portions and reduce such tendency as the guide is nearer to said blade portions, to vary the sensitivity of the slub catcher.

3. A slub catcher including blade portions defining two thread slots spaced apart in the direction of length of the thread, the first said slot being located toward the exit side and the second said slot being located toward the entrance side of the slub catcher, the blade portions at said slots being inclined at a slant to the normal path of the thread so that an enlargement encountering the first slot is deflected laterally and the thread thereby deflected lengthwise of the second slot, the second slot then being adapted to exert a further lateral deflecting action on the enlargement in case the enlargement then engages the blade portions at said second slot, said first slot having an enlarged exit attained by the thread after lateral deflection along said first slot, and the second slot leading into a reduced width extension thereof adapted to snag the thread, and a thread guide at the entrance side of the slub catcher movabletoward and away from the blade portions approximately along the course of approach of the normal thread as undefiected by the occurrence of such enlargement.

SAMUEL L. ABBOTT.

No references cited. 

